


Look At Me

by honeyspeeches



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Aliens, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Brainwashing, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Keith/Lance (Voltron) Angst, M/M, Major Character Injury, Possession, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-11
Updated: 2019-04-11
Packaged: 2019-11-27 00:10:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18187316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/honeyspeeches/pseuds/honeyspeeches
Summary: It was true what Keith had said; his lion was the fastest, and probably their safest bet on getting away quickly if they needed to. At least, that’s what Keith told himself. Admittedly, Keith hadn’t liked the idea of Lance going alone. What if something happened to him? Then they couldn’t form Voltron.“Woah,” Lance breathed out behind him. Keith turned to see the wistfulness on Lance’s face, as he gazed up at the trees around them. His bayard had lowered to his side, forgotten. The trees glowed a faint blue-purple. It gave Lance’s skin a small purple tint, darkening his already tan complexion. It made him look almost...Keith snapped his head ahead of him again.Yeah, Keith agreed, For Voltron. No other reason.





	Look At Me

Keith readjusted his grip on his bayard, his eyes tracking his surroundings carefully as he proceeded deeper into the thick, forest-like scape around him. Lance was a few metres behind him, he knew, but Keith tried not to dwell too much on Lance’s presence.

Allura had sent the two of them out on a scouting mission to clear the area for safe landing. The castle had some severe damages that Coran, Allura and Hunk wanted to get a look at as soon as possible, but they needed to make sure this planet was peaceful. On their scans for this planet, there didn’t seem to be any sign of life, at least, not in this vicinity, but considering the amount of casualty the castle had endured, they would rather be safe than sorry.

Lance had volunteered to do the scouting, insisting at first to do it alone. But when Keith cut in that his lion was the fastest and could get them out quickly if danger proved imminent, Lance had agreed, though somewhat begrudgingly, even as Shiro agreed and supported the idea.

It was true what Keith had said; his lion was the fastest, and probably their safest bet on getting away quickly if they needed to. At least, that’s what Keith told himself. Admittedly, Keith hadn’t liked the idea of Lance going alone. What if something happened to him? Then they couldn’t form Voltron.

“Woah,” Lance breathed out behind him. Keith turned to see the wistfulness on Lance’s face, as he gazed up at the trees around them. His bayard had lowered to his side, forgotten. The trees glowed a faint blue-purple. It gave Lance’s skin a small purple tint, darkening his already tan complexion. It made him look almost…

Keith snapped his head ahead of him again.

_Yeah_ , Keith agreed, _For Voltron. No other reason._

“Focus, Lance,” Keith warned, going left. His helmet gave him no warnings of any heat signatures, but he kept a firm grip on his bayard nonetheless.

“How’s it looking down there?” Pidge chimed in through their comms in their helmets.

Keith took another look around his surroundings and explored deeper into the forest as Lance answered through his comms.

“So far, it’s pretty dead, except for the totally _awesome_ forest, Pidge. I think you’d really like it.”

Keith couldn’t see Lance, but he imagined him saying it with a fond smile that Lance seemed to cast Pidge once in a while. Since Pidge was the smallest, and youngest, of the bunch, they all seemed a tad bit extra protective of her. Keith noticed he did it, too, somewhat unconsciously. But Lance, coming from a big family where he was the youngest, Keith understood Pidge was the closest thing to a little sister Lance could get.

Heck, even Keith thought sometimes that it was a nice change from the vast loneliness that came from the desert.  


“No sign of life so far, but don’t come down just yet,” Keith intercepted, “Lance and I will scout a bit further before we call it safe.”

Keith heard rustling behind him, and he whirled, his bayard activated and raised. His body locked into a defensive stance that he had learned from his time alone in the desert, and also from the training deck in the castle. He waited, his breathing slowing, his mind clearing.

But emerging from the thick bundle of bushes and trees was only Lance, looking around curiously with a small smile playing at his lips, his bayard held loosely by his side. His smile dropped when he saw Keith who was ready for a fight.

Keith relaxed instantly, shooting a glare towards Lance for startling him so.

“Roger that,” Pidge concluded, then opted out of the comms.

Lance spread his arms, “What gives, man?”

Keith shook his head, then turned around to scout the unexplored part of the forest. His comms would carry what he said to Lance. “Stop fucking around, Lance. We could be ambushed any time.”

“Except for the fact that there have been no signs of life since we got here.” Lance’s voice came through clear in Keith’s comms, sounding as if he was talking inside his head. “Shouldn’t have expected any less from Mr. Killjoy himself. What’s wrong, Mullet, afraid of a little fun?”

Keith moved away leaves that obscured his vision of the landscape ahead of him. It looked pretty much like every other part of the forest. He touched some tree trunks as he overstepped big roots that bulged from the ground.

“Seriously, you should loosen up a little. It wouldn’t kill you to enjoy the moment,” Lance prodded.

That was when Keith noticed something. It was a slight change, but it was there nonetheless. A flawed detail in the camouflage of the forest. It was on a tree trunk a little ahead, looking faintly more grey than blue or purple.

“I mean, do you even know what fun _means_?”

When Keith approached the greyish speck on the trunk, he reached out to touch it, when he noticed that its pattern was different from the natural bark of the tree as well. He followed its design to the roots of the tree and trailed his eyes along it to where it connected to other roots. He followed its path, keeping an eye on the pattern that looked slightly more technological than nature.

The pattern led him through several bundles of trees, several clearances before Keith stopped his tracks as he reached what he would describe as the heart of the forest. The designs looked like wires, snaking like vines, blending in with the natural fauna around them. And they all connected to the biggest tree trunk Keith had ever seen.

“Oh, god. Don’t answer that, I think I already know the answer,” Lance said, as a response to Keith’s silence.

Keith rolled his eyes and lowered his bayard, deactivating it and loading it back into the lights at his thigh. “If you’re not too busy listening to the sound of your own voice, I have something you might want to look at.”

The trunk was cut off, the height barely reaching Keith’s knees. He knelt before it, and sent an image to the castle above them, of the designs and the way they all connected to the heart of the cut off tree trunk. Keith reached out a hand, tentatively, to touch the smooth surface, but before he could, he heard rustling behind him.

Lance stepped into the clearing, his eyes finding Keith first, then slid around him to the tree trunk. “Woah,” Lance said, for the second time, then he stepped towards Keith, and laid a hand on his shoulder, “Nice find, Keith. Maybe you do know a little something.”

Keith stood up, Lance’s hand sliding from his shoulder to his back. Keith suppressed a shudder. _Not the time_ , Keith told his body. Then with a pang of disappointment from Keith, Lance retreated his hand.

Keith turned away, turning on the comms to the castle, “Pidge, what do you think?”

“Not sure,” Pidge mulled, something tapping away in the background, “The vines seem to have some sort of code imbedded in them, but I can’t quite— Hunk, get over here, I need your help.”

As Keith waited, he looked around some more. The vines were carefully painted, Keith thought. They blended in with the forest so intricately. Why had that one spot been out of place? And who had built these vines? Were they even built?

He circled the perimeter of the tree trunk, inspecting the trees surrounding them. He didn’t know what he was looking for, he didn’t understand any of the design on the vines or the bark. He reached out a hand again, wanting to trace one of the lines that ran down the tree sharply.

A thud sounded behind him, and Keith whirled to see Lance kneeling by the tree trunk, one hand on the rings of the stump.

“Lance?” Keith called, striding towards him. It was then that he noticed Lance’s bayard laying by his knees, neglected. Keith realised that was what had made the sound. Lance must have let go…

Keith touched a hand on Lance’s shoulder, but there was no reaction. Lance’s head was bent forwards, as if he was praying. Keith knelt beside him and duck his head to see Lance’s expression more clearly.

“Keith? What’s happening?” Hunk called in through the comms, sounding a little distressed.

“I don’t know, Lance seems—“

When Keith caught a glimpse of Lance’s face, his breath hitched. Lance’s eyes were glowing a pastel sort of blue-purple, the same colour as the forest around them. The glow made his eyes look as if he had no pupils. Lance’s mouth was opened slightly, but the rest of his face was blank, as if he was in a trance.

“What? What is it?” Shiro’s voice now called through.

Keith shook his head, his tongue suddenly lead, “Something’s wrong with Lance.” Keith took Lance’s shoulders and shook him lightly, as if that might wake him up from this sleep-like state he was in.

“Lance? Come on, Lance, this isn’t the time to mess around.”

The words sounded hollow, as Keith came to the conclusion Lance really wasn’t doing anything on purpose. Lance hadn’t reacted to Keith’s shake, nor did he even seem to acknowledge he was there.

“Keith,” Pidge’s voice rang out again, pulling Keith back from his growing distress. This was exactly why Keith hadn’t wanted Lance to go alone. “Is Lance touching the trunk? Is he touching any of the vines?”

Keith looked to where Lance’s hand was placed near the centre of the stump, “Yes.”

“Shit.” Pidge cursed.

Keith looked towards Lance’s blank face, his glowing eyes, “What’s going on?” Keith demanded.

There was some muffling at the other end as Keith waited impatiently, mumbling, but no answer.

“ _Pidge!_ ”

“Keith, the vines! They’re alive, sort of. They contain a sort of energy, a history! I don’t know how to explain it, but I don’t think it’s safe!”

Keith frantically shook Lance again, this time harder, but no reaction came from him. Keith’s chest tightened, his panic threatening to engulf him.

“He’s not reacting! What do I do?” Keith asked desperately.

“Get him out of there!” Hunk cried from the other end.

Keith stopped shaking Lance, then reached down by his knee to scoop up Lance’s bayard. But then, before he could even blink, the bayard was snatched from the ground. Keith looked up, expecting to see Lance back to normal, a sigh of relief settling in his throat. But what his gaze met wasn’t Lance.

His eyes were still glowing, but now his face was twisted in a snarling menace, looking at Keith with… _hatred_. It looked so wrong on Lance’s usually cheer face, Keith felt his relief wither and die, and the panic resettling in his stomach.

That’s when Keith noticed the vines. They had snaked around Lance’s legs, and now they wrapped further around him, his waist, his arms, his hands, his chest. Keith backed away as Lance stood, towering over him, his face grim and resentful and dangerous.

“Lance…?” Keith tried, almost pleaded, but it was no use.

Lance’s bayard activated and Keith ran for his life.

The shots from Lance’s bayard barely missed him, slipping past him to the surrounding trees by _centimeters._ Keith didn’t know where he was going, the other’s cries and yelling clouding any sort of strategy Keith tried to form, let alone the roaring of his blood in his ears. He could hear Lance advancing on him, almost as fast as Keith. He was catching up. Keith had never seen Lance run so fast.

It was a mistake looking back. The shot fired towards him would have cost his head, had he not dived to the right as per instinct. Keith landed with a harsh thud, but he quickly scrambled to his feet and kept running, ignoring any soreness to his side.

“Keith—!“ Keith’s comms sounded, but it was starting to turn to static, the communications going out.

“Pidge!” Keith tried, but there were only some abrupt sounds, and more static. “Shiro!” He pleaded. But no one answered him, and then the line went dead. It was silent, except for the blasts of energy directed his way. Keith panicked. His mind was racing a mile minute, trying to find some way for him to get out.

“Lance!” Keith shouted to behind him, in a desperate attempt to make the shots on his life stop, “Wake up! Dammit!”

Keith stopped short, just before he collided with a tree. Vines ahead of him started to lift themselves and surge to him as well, and Keith quickly dove left, avoiding the snake-like movements of vines and another blast aimed at his back. Keith stumbled, but this time he caught himself before he could fall.

He kept running. To where he didn’t know. Just away, barely avoiding shots aimed at his legs, his head, his back. A shot grazed his arm as he veered right, and Keith hissed as he held his arm, his suit torn and revealing a hole in his skin that began to bleed. He faltered, only for a moment, but it was enough for Lance.

Lance was behind him in an instant, aiming a shot at Keith’s chest. Keith just managed to duck before he got a hole in his chest, and then he escaped to the left, holding his am which was growing limp. He was growing desperate. He couldn’t run from Lance forever. He had to fight back somehow. But now his arm was wounded, and he couldn’t seem to stop for a second to pull out his bayard without risking his head.

Then— _there_. A mass of trees opened just slightly, bending over each other, like a cave. It wouldn’t hold for long, but it would give Keith the time he needed to gather up his defenses. Keith pushed his legs harder, sprinting to the opening. Just as he entered the grove, another shot grazed Keith’s leg, and Keith cried out as he fell to the ground.

He had been hit on his calf, which was very bad as he needed to stand upright if he wanted to stand a chance against Lance. Keith’s mind spun, his arm and calf biting in protest as he tried standing, his back against the trunk. His vision flashed white, but he tried pushing past it as he called his bayard from his thigh, his weapon settling in his palm and activating immediately.

Lance’s shots had gone silent, but Keith somehow knew he was heading towards him. Lance — the forest, the vines — had seen Keith stumble into the cave-like area of the trees, so now Keith waited for Lance by the entrance, his sword lifted and ready. Keith tried to calm his breath, to steady his heart-beat. This was possibly his worst nightmare. Except he wasn’t sleeping. He was very much living through it.

Keith forced the burning of his throat and the water in his eyes down as he stood, tensely, his calf bleeding out by the second. Then Keith heard a snap, and Lance’s bayard-blaster tip was visible, and then Keith spun out of the entrance of the grove, bringing his bayard-sword down as swiftly as he could.

Lance’s bayard was knocked out of his hands, and his calculating expression twisted into a snarl. The bayard deactivated and skidded across the ground, some distance from them both. Lance turned around to scramble for it, but Keith sliced the vines across his back, careful not to hit Lance himself, before he tackled him to the ground.

Keith somehow knew it was the vines, their touch, as their technological designs connected with the technology of the suit. He had started glowing after touching the stump, after all, and he distantly remembered Pidge asking about whether Lance was touching any of the vines. He thought, maybe if he rid Lance of all contact with the vines, he would wake up. Their influence would stop.

Lance turned around as he landed on the forest, the vines Keith had cut falling in two around him, but there were still vines around his arms and his legs, and Keith could see out of the corner of his eye that more was sliding towards them. Lance scowled and swung his fist, his knuckles colliding with Keith’s cheek.

Keith fell sideways, his cheekbone burning, his eyes clouding with black spots. He was growing weaker. He was losing too much blood, and he couldn’t stop it. Couldn’t stop Lance as he climbed on top of Keith, and as he circled his hands around Keith’s neck, cutting off his air supply. Lance’s helmet had come off, sometime during the tackle, and his hair was the familiar ruffled darkness, but the colour was all wrong. _He_ was all wrong. His eyes were glowing inhumanly, with such murderous intent it was almost enough to choke Keith on its own.

But Keith would not go down without a fight.

Keith weakly raised his hands, his injured arm burning with the slightest movement. Not to his neck where Lance was squeezing, but to Lance’s arms, grabbing hold of the vines.

On contact, Keith’s mind flashed with burning, purple aliens, and a dark laughter. Hooded figures, big ships, and the vines, destroyed, dying, _screaming—_

No, Keith wouldn’t give in, he wouldn’t let them win. With gritted teeth, Keith pulled on the vines. They broke apart, one of Lance’s arms now free. It was getting harder to breathe, the outlines of his vision growing dark as Lance squeezed, squeezed, squeezed, but his injured arm reached for the one still covered in vines nonetheless, determined to free Lance, to bring him back.

“Please,” Keith choked out, pulling weakly at the other vines around his arm, but it was no use. Keith was growing weaker, he was getting tired. The pain made him dizzy, and he just wanted it all to stop. His eyes were growing heavy, Lance’s snarling scowl the last thing Keith saw before he closed his eyes, his lungs giving out…

Then suddenly the weight on him lightened, the grip on his neck disappearing, and Keith coughed wheezing, willing oxygen into his lungs before he went out completely.

There was yelling around him, sounds of bayards activating, of Lance crying out. Keith’s head was being lifted, but it was all a mess, and he couldn’t tell— couldn’t see.

Someone shouted his name, but his vision was growing dark, and he was slipping away, the darkness enveloping him.

***

When Keith came to, he was falling forwards. Someone caught him before he collided with the floor, and he felt big arms tilting him upright.

“Woah, there. Take it easy, Keith.”

Keith rested his head on the person’s shoulder, his eyes still heavy, and seeming to be a struggle to open. His head hurt, and it was a little hard to breathe. He barely recognized the voice, his mind clouded and blank.

Keith reached up to steady himself with the help of their shoulder, and he managed to get his feet under him, to stand upright and open his eyes. The first thing he saw was yellow. Then when he trailed his eyes upwards, he saw Hunk’s careful and concerned smile, his eyes wary. He looked around. He was in the med-bay. He must have just come out of a med-pod.

Keith only managed a, “where—“ before his mind kickstarted. And everything came back to him like a shock.

Keith snapped his eyes back to Hunk, “Lance— is he—?”

Hunk put a hand on Keith’s arm, stunning him to silence. Keith was dimly aware that his arm no longer hurt, and neither did his calf. Right. Med-pod.

“Lance is alright. We managed to get him away from the vines,” Hunk reassured, but there was a certain hesitation. Almost as if there was something Hunk wasn’t telling him.

Keith looked around. They were alone in the med-bay, no one else was in any of the other pods. Keith looked back at Hunk, straightening a bit, “Where is he? What happened?”

Hunk looked tired, but he was carefully considerate when he led Keith towards the doors. “Let’s get you something to eat. I can tell you about it while you gain some energy.”

While Keith was eating in the kitchen, Hunk rehashed what happened after the comms went out.

Shiro had ordered everyone to their lions, Pidge pulling coordinates from the last interaction to pinpoint where Keith was when they had last spoken. They had flown down there in a frenzy, stepping out as soon as they touched the ground and sped along the forest, careful not to touch the vines.

Hunk explained that what Pidge had found in the vines was life, and not the anaerobic kind back on earth. The vines were intelligent, the markings on them were not built, but developed, holding the vines memories, thoughts, ideas, identity. They were a life force of their own, a dominant species. When Lance touched the trunk, the technology of his suit activated this life force that had stilled for centuries as it grew back from the destruction wracked upon by the Galra. It made the forest defensive, and destructive, and goaded Lance to take Keith out, because it saw him as a threat.

Hunk, Pidge and Shiro had barely gotten there in time. They had heard shots from Lance’s bayard and Keith crying out and flew as fast as they could. When they got there, Keith was being choked and Lance had looked so murderous. They managed to pull Lance off, but Keith had already gone unconscious by then.

It was Pidge who had figured out that if the suit was the life-force given to the vines, then they needed to obstruct any contact with Lance. Hunk looked sheepish, and a little ashamed as he told Keith, that he had knocked Lance out to pull the vines from him, using their jetpacks the whole time, and they carried the both of them back to their lions, Lance with Hunk and Keith with Shiro. Keith had been put in a med-pod immediately. He had been there for almost an entire day.

Keith stared ahead of him, the spoon in his hand forgotten.

Hunk looked down at his hands as he shuffled. Then he spoke after a long silence. “Lance woke up before you did.”

Keith’s attention snapped back to where Hunk was hunched over the counter, the screams of the vines echoing in his head.

“He was pretty upset. He feels really guilty — that he almost—“ Hunk swallowed, then looked at Keith, his eyes concerned and sad, “He locked himself in his room. He hasn’t been out since. He won’t open for anyone.”

Keith looked down at his bowl, his appetite long gone, his heart squeezing. He couldn’t forget Lance’s glowing eyes, his snarl, his scowl as he pressed the air out of his lungs, as he straddled him, kept him down, shooting after him.

Keith closed his eyes and tried shaking out the memory. No, that wasn’t Lance. It _wasn’t_. It was the vines, the forest. It had made him do it. Lance would never do that to Keith. They were teammates, friends…

He imagined Lance now, alone in his dark room, holding himself as he cried, beating himself for almost— for nearly... All alone. Scared. Guilty. Sad.

The chair almost tilted backwards as Keith abruptly stood up, throwing the spoon in his hand down into the bowl.

Hunk looked up with wide eyes in surprise, but he didn’t stop Keith as he headed out, power-walking, almost running, down the hallway, to the right, then to the left.

When he reached Lance’s door, he hesitated. He couldn’t get the aggressive growl from Lance’s mouth out of his mind. He shook his head. No that wasn’t Lance. Lance would never hurt him.

He knocked on the door and waited. No response.

“Lance,” Keith breathed, “It’s me. Let me in.”

Still no response. Keith waited outside the door, and he was beginning to think that either Lance was asleep, or he really wasn’t going to let him in. Just as Keith decided to walk away, however, the door slid open, and Lance stood on the other side, his eyes glassy and wide.

He looked physically healthy, but his eyes were red, his hair a mess, and his cheeks were wet with past tears. His eyes were back to their normal dark blue, no longer glowing, no longer hateful. Keith reached out, his heart aching, his stomach roiling, his head spinning.

But Lance flinched away, fresh tears leaking out of his eyes yet again, “No,” he choked out.

Keith went inside, the door sliding shut behind him. “Lance, it’s okay. I’m alright.” Keith’s hands were automatically raised searching for Lance, but Lance kept backing away.

He shook his head, “You can’t, I might—“ Lance’s sobs broke out of his mouth before he could finish, his tears flowing down like a waterfall. Keith didn’t care now. He closed the distance between them, circling his arms around Lance and holding him close to his chest, his throat burning, his vision blurring with tears of his own.

Lance sobbed so hard, his knees gave out from under him. He landed on his knees, and Keith followed him, tucking his head against Lance’s shoulder as the other boy shook with grief and regret, and the water in his eyes escaped.

“I’m sorry— I’m so sorry,” Lanced sobbed, wrapping his arms around Keith and clutching the suit he was wearing in fists, clinging desperately.

Keith wanted to tell him he wasn’t going anywhere, that he was alright, they were both alright. But he couldn’t find his voice, couldn’t say anything except hold him tight as Lance apologised, pleaded for forgiveness.

Keith let a few more tears escape before he wiped at them angrily, pulling back to force Lance to look at him. Lance’s face was contorted into a pained expression, and he was crying so hard Keith almost started crying again.

“Lance— Lance, look at me.” His voice broke, but he didn’t care. Keith took his face in both of his hands, angling his face upwards so Lance would meet his eyes. “I’m okay. I’m alright. It wasn’t you. I know that. It’s not your fault.” Keith waited, allowing Lance to respond, but Lance only cried, sobbing looking down and taking Keith’s hands in his own. “You’re alright,” Keith continued, cradling Lance’s head now against his chest, and rocking them back and forth a little bit. “We’re alright. It’s over now.”

Keith rested his head on Lance’s hair, pecking the crown of his head, and murmuring reassurances, hoping this helped. He stroked through the strands of his hair, carefully, and tried not to cry himself. Keith was never good with comfort, but this wasn’t something he had to think about. He knew, somehow, that he just had to hold him, talk to him, until he calmed down. He wouldn’t leave before Lance calmed down. Heck, Keith didn’t really think he would ever leave Lance out of his sight.

Keith had failed at the one thing he had set out to do. Protect Lance. And he couldn’t even do that.

He held Lance as he soaked his T-shirt, his sobs the only sound in the dark and silent room.

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr: Honeyspeeches
> 
> Come say hi!


End file.
